Plans for huge roof bar at Royal Festival Hall condemned as shocking

A secret plan to install an enormous bar and restaurant on the roof of the has been condemned as shocking, insensitive and harmful for a building regarded as one of the finest examples of 20th-century British architecture. The Guardian can reveal that the and a commercial partner, the Incipio Group, have applied for permission to erect a temporary, transparent pavilion on the flat roof. Covering 686 sq metres of floor space, it would be open until 2am at weekends and offer diners and drinkers spectacular views of the Thames. The idea is that the Pergola on the River, as it...

Adapting much-loved books for the screen is risky and can be fraught, especially if a series has been as adored as . The characters live so vividly in readers’ minds that their TV forms may only be able to exist on a sliding scale of disappointment. Thankfully, , 2012’s My Brilliant Friend (Sky Atlantic), comes with an understated, solid confidence that suits its source material perfectly. Ferrante, , is credited as one of four writers on the show, so it is little wonder that it feels authentic, but this is a gorgeous TV show on its own merits. It is...

On March 18 one of Uber's self-driving cars killed a pedestrian, the first pedestrian fatality involving a self-driving car. As Uber prepares to return its cars to the roads, Business Insider spoke to current and former employees and viewed internal documents. These employees and documents described vast dysfunctionality in Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group, with rampant infighting and pressure to catch up to competitors, issues that these employees say continue to this day. Sources say engineers were pressured to "tune" the self-driving car for a smoother ride in preparation of a big, planned year-end demonstration of their progress. But that meant...

Instagram is cracking down on accounts that use third-party apps to dole out fake likes and follows, the company announced Monday. Using machine learning tools, the photo-sharing platform will remove "inauthentic" likes, which are generated by third-party platforms designed to boost audience growth for users. Facebook, Instagram's parent company, has also worked to take down accounts and pages that have been linked to "inauthentic behavior." Influencers and brands who use bot apps to boost their popularity and increase audience growth may be in trouble, thanks to a new initiative Instagram announced Monday. In a blog post, Instagram said it would...

"Fallout 76" players set off three nuclear bombs at once, resulting in a server crash. Released on November 14th, "Fallout 76" is the latest game in the series of post-apocalyptic first-person shooters. The world of "Fallout" has been devastated by nuclear war, and players can acquire their own nuclear weapons at the end of the game with similarly disastrous effects. Nukes are supposed to be hard to get, requiring players to find randomly generated nuclear codes and decipher them individually. But a small group of players has already found a way to streamline the process. YouTuber Nickaroo93 and his friends...

The Duchess of Sussex has met Take That as she attended the Royal Variety Performance for the first time. She wore a black-and-white sequinned Safiyaa dress for the charity gala at the London Palladium on Monday night.The duchess told the pop group: "I'm looking forward to seeing you closing the show."Meghan and Prince Harry were also entertained by singers Rick Astley, George Ezra and the cast of Hamilton during the annual fundraiser.Comedian Lost Voice Guy, winner of Britain's Got Talent, is also on the bill. Take That's Mark Owen, wearing a maroon velvet suit, said meeting the royals had been...

Apple charges a lot of money to add more built-in storage to devices like iPads and Mac computers. A new iPad Pro with 64 GB of storage costs $799, but moving up to 1 terabyte of storage will cost you an extra $750 — almost as much as a second iPad Pro. Having more built-in storage certainly has its benefits, but there are ways to get more storage for your various computers without paying the so-called Apple Tax. Apple is known for making expensive products, like iPhones and iPads. The products themselves don't always start out costly, but one of...